Manufacture of thread or the like



' Jan. 24, 1939.

H. B. KLINE ET AL MANUFACTURE OF THREAD OR THE LIKE Original Filed Jan. 12, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS Z HAYDEN B. KLINE WALTER F. KNEBUSCH BY ATTORNEY A N H. URKHOLDER Jan. 24, 1939. H. B. KLINE ET AL- 2,144,629

MANUFACTURE OF THREAD OR THE LIKE Original Filed Jan. 12, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS HAYDEN B. KLINE.

' WALTER F. KNEBUSCH A l EN .BURKHOLDER} %N EY Z Patented Jan. 24, 1,939

[TED STATES 4 2,144,629 PATENT OFFICE MANUFACTURE OF THREAD on THE LIKE Hayden B. Kline, Walter F. Knebusch, and Alden H. Burkholder, Cleveland, Ohio, assignors to Industrial Rayon Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware Original application January 12, 1933, Serial No. 651,404. Divided and this application February 11, 1936, Serial N0. 63,462

3 Claims.

This invention relates to the manufacture by a continuous method of thread or the like, particularly artificial silk. thread. The invention aims, among other things, to provide a continuone process making possible a closer degree of control in the manufacture of thread or the. like, particularly artificial silk thread, with the obvious and will in part appear more fully hereinafter.

This application is a division of prior application Serial No, 651,404, filed January 12, 1933,.

for Continuous spinning machine."

In the drawings, which represent a machine of the kind to which the invention relates and in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a portion of the machine; Figure 2 is a'sectional elevation ofpart of the machine on the line 2-2, Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows, other parts being omitted for simplicity of illustration; Figure 3 is a detail cross section, on the line 3-3, Figure 5; Figure 4 is a detail end elevation of one of the controlling cams; Figure 5 is a detail sectional elevation,

on the line 5-5 of Figure 2, through the end portion of one of the reels, all bars beyond the plane of section being omitted for 'clearness of illustration; and Figure 6 is a detail end view of one of the reel bars.

While the invention is capable of use in connection with the manufacture of any synthetic thread or thread-like article, regardless of kind, and, more particularly in connection with any process of making artificialsilk thread, such as the cuprammonium, cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate, and viscose processes, for convenience but in no sense of limitation it has been illustrated and will be described herein in connection a with the viscose process of manufacturing artificial silk thread. The purpose of the invention is, among other things, to provide a method by which thethread or the like to be formed may be spun in any customary manner and then led successively to various devices for'subjecting it to the necessary treatment by the particular process by which the thread or the like is being manufactured, the thread or the like finally emerging from the machine as a whole in finished or partly finished form, preferably dry, and wound or otherwisecollected upon a collecting device in suitable package form convenient for handling or shipment.

In the viscose process, generally speaking, an alkaline solution of cellulose xanthate is spun into an acid coagulating bath and is collected either upon bobbins in a bobbin spinning machine or in the form of cakes in a centrifugal spinning machine, after which the thread, upon such .bobbins or in such cake, is subjected to various treatments, including washing, desulfurizing, bleaching, souring, drying and the like, although some of these steps may be omitted or other or additional method steps may be performedupon it, as will be readily understood. Any or all of these various method steps may be performed .upon the thread in one and the same organized machine, during continuous travel of the thread from the place of spinning to the device upon which it is finally collected. The drawings for convenience show only a few such steps, but they may be varied over a wide range, as will appear.

' Referring first to Figures 1 and 2, the machine comprises a suitable frame including front and rear uprights l, 2 connected by horizontal cross braces 3. The frame, and indeed the machine as a whole, is readily fabricated in the form of units of such a character that they may be attached to each other, in regular order, any number of such units; so as to multiply to any desired degree the number of threads which may single multiple unit has been illustrated, which unit is shown as equipped to form six threads, although the number formed in each unit may be more or less than six.

At the back of the frame are mounted the necessary devices, for spinning the thread, such including the usual supply pipes, pumps, spinnerets, etc. (not shown). In placing the machine in operation, the spinnerets are immersed in the usual way beneath the surface of the acid coagulating bath 9 in trough Ill. The thread A. extruded from each spinneret is conducted through the coagulating bath 9 over or through suitable guides ll, l2 to the first of a series of unitary thread-advancing reels, fivr being shown in the drawings, marked respectively I3, l3a, l3b, 13c, 13d. Except for differences in the baths used therewith, the process steps in. which they r Generally speal take the form of s it, a, etc, may -advancing device upon which a thr wound continuously in generally helical in n x a manner to expose to treatment all of the thereon and. from which the thread be continuously unwound. In other words, the reel is preferably so constructed and operated as to enable the thread Y the reel. Various known thread-advancing devices are available for the purpose.

In the arrangement shown in the drawings, each reel is of generally cylindrical form. Each includes two sets of bars, No, l lb, all of more or less rectangular cross section and parallel to each other, arranged to form the elements of a cylinder. Together, the two sets of barsform a hollow cage-like reel upon which the thread is wound in generally helical form. The reel is also provided with means for operating the bars, individually and as groups, so as to cause thread wound upon it to take substantially a helical form and to cause the thread turns to progress bodily along the length of the reel to a discharge point. The reels may be long enough to take care of one thread or a plurality of threads, six threads being shown in the drawings. The particular reel illustrated is divided into six zones arranged end to end, on each of which the reel carries a large number of substantially helical turns of a. thread, as many as from fifty to several hundred turns of thread, although, for clearness ofillustration, the turns are shown as more widely spaced.

Any number of said reels may be mounted in vertically spaced relation, nve being shown in the drawings. The mechanism of successive reels ll, Ila, lib, etc., is so arranged as to produce travel of threads along the reels in. one direction on the first reel, in the opposite direction on the next reel, and so on. As shown in Figure 1, the turns of thread progress bodily from left to right on reel ll, from right to left on reel "a, from left to right on reel lib, and so on. The thread is led from reel to reel in such manner that the transfer or carry over of the thread from reel to reel is at the front of the machine, as shown in Figure '2. Thisis the working face of the machine and consequently all threads are readily accessible to the operator.

In the machine shown in the drawings, the upper-most reel ll is a holding or set-upreel upon which coagulation of the thread is allowed to proceed substantially to completion. The thread upon it is not subjected to the action of any processing medium, although it may be, if desired, according to the requirements of aparticular process. Guides II and I2 serve as wipers to turn back toward the trough ll surplus liquid from the coagulatingbath O clinging toand car ried up by the thread. The thread is thus wound upon the upper reel II in wet condition and the time necessary for the thread to progress along the reel to the place of discharge therefrom is utilized to permit substantially complete regeneration of the cellulose content of the viscose.

The drawings show the second stage of the machine ssutilized for a washing stop, upfor example, washing with hot water to remove acid coming from the coagulating bath or with hot water containing a small amount of a reagent adapted to neutralize remaining traces of acid from the coagulating bath. The reel l3a is provided with suitable means for supplying wash liquor to the thread upon the reel, such as a supply trough l6 mounted in the frame and from which wash liquid is delivered to the thread upon the reel either by suitable spray nozzles above it or, in the manner shown, by flowing over a horizontal weir notch l'! with its outlet above the reel axis. This weir notch extends the full length of the reel and supplies wash liquor for all the threads being wound upon it. The wash liquor of course showers down upon the thread and subjects every portion of the thread upon the reel to flowing wash liquor. The length of each thread upon the reel, taking into consideration the speed of thread travel, is sufficient so that by the time the thread leaves the reel it is completely washed. The wash water drains from reel l3a into a collecting trough l8 beneath it, from which it may be discharged to the sewer or recirculated to the supply trough Hi.

In like manner the thread on the third reel, lib, may be desulphurized by treating it with a solution of an alkali sulphide distributed from a trough ill by a weir notch 20 and collected by a receiving trough 2|.

Likewise, in the fourth stage, at reel I30, the thread may be subjected to another washing step, with clear water, which is either circulated over and over again or discharged to the sewer.

Other reels may be provided for additional steps, such as a bath of bleaching material, another wash bath, etc.; but the reels, collecting troughs, pumps, ate, for such steps have been omitted for simplicity of illustration.

l inally, the thread is led to the last reel, lld,

where it is subjected to a drying operation. Reel lid is enclosed within a drying chamber 24 in a hollow casing 22 of sheet metal or the like, the several threads passing to and from said reel through very narrow slots or openings 22a. In the casing 22 are finned heating coils II, heated by steam or the like. The drying chamber 24 of said casing communicates by a passage II with a supply of air pre-conditioned as to moisture content. The chamber 24 also communicates by passage 21 with an outlet passage. As the air passes the heating coils 23, the temperature of the air is raised to a point at which it will leave a predetermined amount of moisture in the thread.

Figures 3, 4 and 5 illustrate in detail one of the reel mechanisms. Each reel includes a central rotatable shaft 32 having keyed to it at each end of the reel 9. spider-like end head 33 having a series of radial notches 33a in which are mounted the rectangular bars Ila, llb. Each of the end heads 33 rotates adjacent a stationary cam disc I4 rigidly mounted and supported upon one of the cross frame members 3. Each cam member N is provided with two cam grooves 85, II, and with two end face cams ll, ll. Each bar is provided at each of its ends with an operating member I! fastened to it by rivets 4. or the like and including an end arm ll entering one of the grooves 35, II and a shoulder I! abutting one of the end cams 31, 88. The arrangements at the two ends of the reel are alike in the sense that the end grooves 35, I! in one cam member II are reversed duplicates of those in the other, while the end cams 31, ll on the two cam mamshaft 86 of the collecting device Is. It will be bers are oppositely acting or the reverse of each other. End arms II on the bars of one group,

such as the bars I la, are offset from said bars.

radially outwardly, while the end arms 4| on the bars of the other group are ofiset radially inwardly, as shown in Figure -5. I

The end cams 31, 38 produce longitudinal reciprocation of the bars Ila, lib, whereas the groove cams 35, 36 produce radial motion of said bars, or, in other words, motion of said bars toward and from the central axis. As the shaft 32 rotates, it carries with it the two end heads 33 and causes the'bars to move around like those of a squirrel cage, and as said bars travel their arms 4| and shoulders 42 travel in the cam grooves and along the end cams and cause the and to the central axis, say by one-sixteenth of an inch in a seven inch diameter reel. They are not true circles, however. Considering the full 360 of the cage, there are two diametrically opposite zones M, Figure 3, each of about 30 circumferential extent, where neighboring bars of the two grooves aresimultaneously in contact with the thread turns, and beyond these 30 zones M there are two very short zones N where the two sets of bars quickly change their relative radial positions, one group of the reel bars Ila moving inwardly and the group of bars lib-moving outwardly in one zone N, with the reverse action occurring in zone N on the opposite side of the reel. During travel through these zones M, N, while both sets of bars are in contact with the thread, and while they are rapidly changing their relative radial. positions, the shoulders 42 are moving along flat portions of the end cams 31, 38 so that both groups'of. bars have no longitudinal motion in either direction. When the bars have changed their relative radial posi tions, one group moving inwardly and the other outwardly, so that the turns of the. threads are supported on one group of the bars alone, then the end cams 31, 33 begin to be curved and to produce longitudinal bar motion, that group of bars in contact with the thread turns moving forward to advance the thread and that group out of the contact with the thread turns moving backwardly or retreating to be ready for the next advance movement and so on. From the practical standpoint, in the arrangement shown, thread advance occurs through approximately 279 -of full rotation. i

The end cams 31, 38 may. vary in different reels, so as to provide different rates of progression or travel of the thread turns along different reels. 4

The operating mechanism may be of any suitable form, as, for example, an electric motor 50. A chain belt, or the like, designated 54, drives shaft 32 of the lowermost reel l3d. Said shaft is provided with a pulley 55 from which a belt 56 passes to a similar pulley on the shaft 32 of the next higher reel, and the drive isthen from reel to reel by successive belts 56 and proper pulleys, as shown in Figure 1. Motor 50 is also connected by a belt 82 with a horizontal main line shaft -63 which, bybelt it, drives apulley 65 on the understood that the same motor 52 may be used fordriving any number of units such as those shown in .Figure l.

r The apparatus as a whole is preferably arranged for convenience in threading up, for which purpose successive reels are offset horizontally relative to each other, as shown in Figure 2. In other words, while the axes of the reels are parallel to each other, each reel is just a little nearer to the front of the machine than its predecessor reel next above it. The thread is wound upon the reels so that the leading and following portions of the thread, where the thread passes from reel to reel, are tangent to the reels at the front of the machine, but are not truly vertical. As a consequence, when the machine is threaded up, the free end of the thread is applied to one of the bars on the upper reel while it is rotating.

. The thread is then wound by the reeling operation upon the first or uppermost reel, the helical turns progressing bodily toward the right, Figure 1, until the discharge point is reached. The leading end of the thread is then picked oil and is led down to the next reel, with similar operations at each of the successive reels, and thence to the final collecting device. Preferably, however, the reels are provided with means to cause the leading free end of the thread to automatically pass from reel to reel, to thereby automatically thread up the entire machine.

It is intended that the patent shall cover, by suitable expression in the appendedclaims, whatever features of patentable novelty reside in the invention.-

What is claimed is:

1. A method for the manufacture by the viscose process of artificial silk thread or the like comprising extruding viscase into a coagulating bath under conditions such as to form thread or the like that is but incompletely coagulated; continuously but temporarily storing the incompletely coagulated thread or the like, without, however, subjecting it to the action of a processing medium other than the coagulant to which the viscose is subjected in the coagulating bath, in the first in sequence of a plurality of parallel, laterally spaced helices individually characterized by a large number of closely spaced, generally helical turns, the period, of storage being sumciently long to permit regeneration of the cellulose content ofthe viscose to proceed substantially to completion; continuously but temporarily storing the substantially completely coagulated thread or the like in the second in.sequence of said plurality of parallel, laterally spaced helices, meanwhile performing-thereon a different processing step included in the process of manufac- 2. An improved process of the kind set forth in claim 1 in which the period of storage is fol-.

ture of the thread or the like; and collecting the thread or the like. 

